Spider Paragraphs

I am reading a book called "Uneclipsing the Son" by Rick Holland. It is a simple, small book about how in the midst of all of our Christian activities and the enormity of resources to which we have access, we have essentially forgotten to worship Jesus Christ, the center of our faith. But this is not a treatment of the book (right now), rather, I thought I'd write about a notable reference inside the book.

I have always thought of them as the "spider paragraphs--" those remarkable lines in Jonathan Edwards sermon to the New England crowd during the Great Awakening. When I re-read it in this book, I was figuratively time-warped to my high school days, having read it in English class as part of our American literature section. We discussed it in class, and I remember the juxtaposition of the impact the mere reading of the sermon brought to bear on my own heart with the intense reaction of my offended classmates. I shrunk back a bit in my seat as the discussion grew heated, not overly wanting to share that I felt deep conviction and gratitude for such a great God who would reach out and save me in the way described. I don't know if anyone in that class shared my feelings on the piece...I regrettably kept silent-- probably for fear of man. But I did not forget the sermon. I imagine it to be much more powerful in person, even, than the rendering of it on the page. So as I re-read it in this book, my heart was stirred, once again, to gratitude for the marvelous work God has done in my life. And I only pray that He'll do the same in the lives of my children, the lives of those I love, and the many other lives of the unsaved!

From one of Edwards' sermons during the Great Awakening:

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.

O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in.